Thoughts on E3 2017

E3 is over and, on the whole, it was mostly uninspiring, with far to many games about shooting zombies. There were a few gems in there though. Let’s quickly run through the whole mess and find them.

Nintendo

I really don’t care about anything Nintendo does. The Switch is underwhelming, with underpowered hardware that was poorly thought through (why no glass screen ffs). Umm… Meteroid might be okay, maybe.

EA

Lots of boring shooter sequels, sports games, and a Bioware knock off of Destiny. meh.

Microsoft

If you ignore the terrible name, the Xbox One X looks the goods, with tons of power and a decent price. The VR headset to go with it was conspicuous absent though. Microsoft also had some great looking games. The Last Night looks incredible, but there was no hint of gameplay, so too early to get hyped there. Ashen also looks.. interesting.

Microsoft also gave me the first truely exciting moment of E3, with a squeal to Ori that has an incredible trailer. I mean, just look at it!

Bethesda

Yet more bloody Skyrim and some VR bollocks. Further meh.

Ubisoft

Finally, we are getting somewhere, with a pretty strong showing. Making the pirate ship part of Black Flag into it’s own game is a great idea. I’m somewhat gobsmacked it took them this long. The new Assassins Creed actually looks interesting too. The game is done to death, but ancient Egypt and much heavier RPG elements have me interested.

Ubisoft also finished off with the best announcement of the entire show. Beyond Good and Evil 2’s trailer is incredible. It’s crazy, original, and full of life and fun. I loved the first game and can’t wait to get my hands on this.

Sony

I liked the way Sony dispensed with all the yapping executives and just played trailers. Especially when they had such a strong showing. God of War looks great, as does Detroit. There weren’t any big new games, but more Unchartered, Horizon, Destiny, and Life is Strange can only be a good thing.

I suppose it could be considered slight depressing that a remake of a 2005 game was the highlight of the presentation for me, but Shadow of the Colossus is one of the great games, and we really haven’t seen anything like it since. It’s worthy of a HD remake.